After sampling our homemade mentsuyu sauce cold, in a refreshing dish of enoki and grated nagaimo, and warm, with blanched okra and bonito shavings, let’s crank up the heat and pour it over Brussels sprouts browned in bacon fat, a touch of fiery ginger, pieces of roasted nori and sizzling strips of those beloved smoked pork bits!
Brussels sprouts are one of my favourite vegetables, and yet, in my five months of blogging, I have not posted a single recipe for these diminutive cruciferous bundles.
There is a simple reason for this, which may at first glance seem paradoxical to the aforementioned statement: I eat Brussels sprouts every day.
Yup. Nearly every day for breakfast, after my workout, I eat a big bowl of steamed Brussels sprouts, dunked into an umami broth with mushroom, seaweed and fish. There are a few reasons for this:
1) Avoiding decision fatigue. It is well known in the field of psychology now that human beings only have a limited amount of daily ‘mental energy’ to allocate to difficult cognitive tasks, and as this energy gets depleted, we get poorer and poorer at decision-making*. This is why habits and commitments are so much more effective than relying on willpower to make good decisions about things like health and self-improvement on a daily basis. What does this have to do with Brussels sprouts? Well, if I don’t ever have to decide what to eat for breakfast, and whether or not I should exercise and do yoga, I can allocate my mental energy to more important decisions, all the while assured that I’ve got my health covered… at least for the first half of my day!
2) Comfort. Even to an avid cook in constant pursuit of novelty and challenge, there is a well found comfort in eating the same thing for breakfast day in and day out. I chose a breakfast that is as satisfying to my taste buds as it is to my body.
3) Time-Saving. We’re all busy people! I’ve committed to making all of my meals from scratch (except for special occasions with friends or family), but it’s stands to reason that I have to cut corners somewhere, or else I’d spend my entire life in the kitchen (although arguably, I already do!). Having a streamlined routine is the best way to do this.
As a result, Brussels sprouts became the porridge of my gastronomic world: comforting and yet ubiquitous; so commonplace that it doesn’t merit mention; so mundane that it disappears into the décor. But once in a while, I look at those beautiful green sprouts in my fridge and feel like I should do for them what I do with all the other vegetables that pass through my shopping basket: create.
And so I did.
For this recipe, I took two long-standing buddies in the culinary world, Brussels sprouts and bacon, and gave the pairing a Japanese makeover by flavouring them with mentsuyu, ginger, roasted nori, and toasted sesame seeds.
I really need a bigger pan…
I cooked the Brussels sprouts partially with steam before throwing them into the frying pan. The result is a bowl a sprouts that are cooked through, but not overly so, and nicely browned on the outside. Add some fiery ginger, salty seaweed, nutty sesame seeds, and a rich umami sauce and you have a tasty side dish that comes together in no time.
Joëlle
Serves 2
Brussels sprouts and bacon get a Japanese makeover! Browned in a hot pan with sizzling strips of bacon, then doused in rich mentsuyu, with a touch of fiery ginger, roasted nori and nutty sesame seeds, these are not-your-grandmother's sprouts!
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups brussels sprouts, halved
- 4 slices bacon, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 sheet nori, shredded into small pieces
- 1/3 cup mentsuyu
- 1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
Instructions
- Steam brussels sprouts for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Place bacon pieces on a cast iron frying pan and turn the heat on to medium-low.
- Cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, until done to your liking.
- Add brussels sprouts and ginger to the pan with the bacon, and turn up the heat to medium. Cook until the surface of the sprouts start to brown, about 5 minutes.
- Pour in the mentsuyu, stir, and cook a few minutes more, until the sauce has partially reduced.
- Stir in nori, turn off the heat, and serve with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.
Notes
Mentsuyu is a rich Japanese sauce made from soy sauce, mirin, sake, konbu (kelp) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), used to flavour noodle dishes, stir fries and hot pots. Find the recipe here.
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Resources
For more information about decision fatigue, check out this New York Times article, and this article by James Clear
